Here I stand some three days after the conclusion of Project Twelve Moments 2009, my fingers bent and bloodied, my mind weeping ichorous tears after twelve days of wracking. And yet my work is unfinished. A mere twelve posts aren’t enough to cover every specimen of drawn and/or animated media I consumed in 2009 that hit me where it counts. I’d like to mention, briefly, a few other examples of note, and though even this list will surely leave things out, I’ll at least feel a little better for recommending a few extra things that seem to deserve it.
Archive for the ‘Manga’ Category
Moment(s) the [nth]: Honorable mentions, part 1
Posted 28 December 2009Moment the Sixth: You oughta treasure yer life
Posted 20 December 2009[Read the previous moment here or start at the beginning]
Yotsuba&!: does it need any introduction? Or, would any paltry introduction I wrote for it be enough?
Moment the Eighth: Today’s target is…
Posted 18 December 2009[Read the previous moment here or start at the beginning]
If the previous moment was an emotional high point, this one’s a definite low.
The manga in question here is Onani Master Kurosawa, that indie production that did more for me than many (perhaps most) of the professional works I consumed this year. That it takes a dark turn isn’t so surprising; it’s easy to guess that the guy who ejaculates on people’s belongings for great justice and the girl who blackmails him into doing so don’t have wholly bright futures in store. But it’s hard to imagine just how dark said dark turn will be until it happens. And, sure enough, it’s dark.
Bokurano: tragedy, connectivity
Posted 8 September 2009Good literature, I think, makes us feel our membership in the human race. It engenders within us an empathy and a love for living things that can be hard to come by during the natural course of our everyday lives. That’s no small feat, and it’s one of the reasons I’m so averse to selling short the pursuit of entertainment, a very potent and available kind of self-reflection.
By that definition, Bokurano is good literature.
I Remember Love (Hina): Man-moe revisited
Posted 22 August 2009Let’s pretend for a while that “moe” isn’t a blanket term for any quality a fan likes to see in an illustrated member of the sex in which they’re interested. Functionally it might be, but we’re pretending here.
The “essence” of moe is protectiveness; a moe character is one for whom you might take a bullet. And it isn’t about sexual attraction, I’d say, even if others might say otherwise. Have you noticed how characters in ero doujins are often stripped of their canonical personalities almost entirely? I’m guessing that’s a necessity. I’ve talked about this, about how I subscribe to a gradient model of moe and gar, before.
At any rate, when Otouto-kun, who I’ve conscripted into reading Love Hina, mentioned that Keitaro might be moe, I couldn’t help but wonder.
I Remember Love (Hina): Toudai e…
Posted 20 August 2009Love Hina — it’s harem, yes. It’s by no means the first harem manga, clearly, but it was my first exposure to harem, and damn near my first exposure to manga, and so it played a formative role in my personal fandom. Even now, during my second re-reading (to which I will subject you, noble reader, be warned rest assured) I maintain that it’s quite good if you don’t mind the conventions it deals with. Beyond (and sometimes because of) the general over-the-top craziness I’ve come to expect from Akamatsu, it has a surprising wealth of clever, lucid moments.
For one thing, it puts the idea of college to work in a curious way, and if you’ve been listening to me at all since June of last year, you’ll know I have a bit of a thing for academia.
Ghostlightning, transientem, and Owen on Onani Master Kurosawa; on relating to Kitahara
Posted 13 August 2009I really should stick to Fate/stay night, I guess, but this quick-and-often blogging, once resurrected from hiatus, has its own momentum. Also, I read Onani Master Kurosawa in one go last night, so it probably deserves some attention beyond the usual Twitter gibberish. But what can I say that you, my tight compadres of the sphere, haven’t said better already? Truly I am always last to the sausage fest party.
A silent digression
Posted 7 March 2009What happens when you turn a member of a moe support cast into a protagonist in her own right? Zero no Tsukaima Gaiden — Tabitha no Bouken answers this question, or at least meets it head-on with guns blazing and missiles barraging, by giving its parent series’ resident silent moekko Tabitha Orleans a chance to take center stage. I wonder if this is really necessary, but I like Tabitha, as far as moeblobs go, so…well, let’s at least see how it begins.
